Planted by the Streams

I planned to start looking for a house to buy last month. I started saving a couple years ago and for the last 10 months participated in a savings program at the bank. As part of this, I can get a $7500 grant toward down payments and closing costs if I buy a home within the next year. That’s some significant help toward this dream! As I said, I planned to start actually looking for a house in August or early September. Long story short, God had other plans.

For various reasons that don’t really matter, I decided a couple weeks ago to put that off for a while. It might be just for a month or so, or maybe longer, not really sure right now. The cool part is that instead of disappointment, I’ve found peace.

A few days before I made the decision to postpone this for a while longer I found myself at a nearby park sitting beside a creek that runs along some trails.

I pondered all that was happening in life at that moment. Let’s suffice it to say, my summer was crazy and while the pace of the fall has slowed a bit, the crazy hasn’t stopped. Crazy at work. Crazy with family members being sick. Crazy being sick myself still recovering from surgery 3 months ago and figuring out life with half a thyroid. Crazy relationships. Crazy emotions. Crazytown all over the place.

In the midst of the crazy, sitting beside the creek, simply staring at water crash over rocks, I noticed the trees on the opposite bank. Roots reaching deep into the water, standing tall and green. This passage from Jeremiah came vividly to mind:

But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. (Jeremiah‬ ‭17:7-8‬‬)

Despite the crazy… the droughts… the heat of life… there is a way of life that still leads to steadiness and faithfulness. I wanted that.

In that moment, I knew this verse would become a defining one for this season of life. If I remain planted by the water, if I let my roots draw from the unlimited source of life and nourishment, if I trust… I will be okay. I will be steady. I will continue to bear fruit in my life and the ministry to which God has called me.

I wasn’t really thinking about the ‘crazy’ of first time home-ownership when pondering all the other crazy there by the creek except for this one passing thought: “Maybe I can find a house near some water”.

Only later in that week (AFTER the decision to postpone the house hunting for now) did I have this revelation:

That creek I was sitting by, if you follow it down for miles through all it’s twists and turns, it passes right in front of my current apartment!

Seriously!?! I can’t make this stuff up.

I may have to ignore some traffic driving by or look past the guardrail, but from my porch or my bedroom window I can see it clearly: more trees, lining the bank, roots stretching down into the water, green and fruitful.

Only God knows when and where He’ll have me move, but for now, He has me literally planted beside the water in a season of figuring out figuratively what that kind of trust looks like. Only our God, y’all… only our God!